"Being a wine aficionado, I said, 'You're out of your mind, get out of here; the stuff is barely more palatable than cough medicine," Durante said.

"With a little bit of urging, Greg said, 'You really have to try what this guy Mike is making,'" he said. "I had one sip of what is now called Mo-Me-Doh and I was sold. They have a fantastic product."

Mo-Me-Doh is the company's mead equivalent of a mojito, with a lime and mint aroma. Other brands include Straight No Chaser (a straight, semi-sweet mead), the Woofiedog (a hopped mead), Pikwant Field (a strawberry kiwi mead) and Fred & Ginger (a ginger mead).

Since their soft opening in late December, Manning estimates they have brewed about 750 gallons of mead so far. Their tanks occupy about 800 square feet at the Bridgeworks Enterprise Center.

Heller-LaBelle and Manning raised money on the crowd-funding site Rockethub.com. Heller-LaBelle had been a beer writer for six years and ran a group called the Lehigh Valley Beer Society, and Manning won Best in Show at the Valhalla Mead competition in 2011 with his mojito-style "Mo-Mead-Mo."

The meadery's grand opening was planned in coordination with Lehigh Valley Beer Week, which kicked off Sunday.